Deriving from his passion for indie-alternative rock, hyper-pop and electronic pop, KLAXX’s sound is a deep-blend of beautiful, yet heavy, dance-floor nostalgia.
The Los-Angeles based artist experimented for a few years before cementing his sound. He dipped and he dabbled, eventually landing on a solid sound that perfectly encompasses who he is both personally, and artistically.
Influenced heavily by Porter Robinson, Skrillex, The 1975, and NGHTMRE, KLAXX’s new album Where Everything Collides is a project that concludes a journey of self-discovery. With two releases already dropped and ‘Starlight’ with yetep dropping eminently, KLAXX is drip-feeding fans snippets of what’s to come when the full project drops later this year.
KLAXX Zooms in from sunny LA to spill the beans.
Let’s take it back to the beginning of KLAXX. What’s the story?
After 4 years of University in San Diego, I moved up to LA to go to a music production school called ICON Collective. KLAXX started there. I did a remix of NGHTMRE, a track off one of his old EPs. That’s how I got my foot in the door. I hadn’t made any original music at that point though, it was just remixes. I remixed so many songs. Anything that I liked, I remixed. The first original track I made came out around a year later. I was still kind of trying to find my sound at that point. I was trying to do trap stuff, some dubstep. I didn’t really find my sound until about a year ago, honestly
It’s great you landed on a sound that feels authentic to you. What and/or who have been your biggest influences when it comes to your creativity or music?
Oh man, I have too many. I started listening to electronic music in 2012. Skrillex is one of my biggest influences. His versatility. Everything about him! He’s the GOAT. I would say Porter Robinson is my favourite artist though. People outside of electronic music too, The 1975. They are big influences for me. They don’t just make rock music, they make garage and insanely well written pop stars, house stuff. Their song writing is amazing too. I’ve also been listening to a lot of hyper-pop recently too.
What do you want people to feel when they listen to your music?
I want to make sure my song arrangements are interesting and not too repetitive. I like to keep people on their toes, that’s a big thing for me. Also, I don’t know if it’s what I’m trying to make when I make people feel exactly when they listen, but so many people that listen to my music feel nostalgia. I think it’s cool to hear those people’s perspectives. I’ll go and listen after and think, oh, this does sound nostalgic. So I’d say because of this, when I go back in the studio, I do kind of feed into people’s feelings around nostalgia. You want people to fall in love all over again.
Nostalgia is a beautiful and powerful thing! What did you want to say with this project?
I wanted to cover all of my inspirations since I started KLAXX, everything in one project. I love pop music and I love big festival trap albums. I love melodies. I wanted a project that showcases all of these different parts of me and my journey.
So much of your work has been created in Los Angeles. Describe the electronic dance scene there at the minute.
The scene is very alive here in LA. You can stumble into any club nowadays and it’s slammed to the wall. There are so many different clubs now too. Insomniac have a huge presence here, aside from them, there are so many promoters who will put on little pop-up parties across the city. It could be a random Wednesday and it’ll still be rammed. It’s only going to grow here in LA. It feels quite saturated in many ways but I think it’s only going to get bigger and bigger. You see big electronic artists coming over, headlining huge stadiums and arenas. I don’t think you ever saw that 5 years ago.
Amazing! What changes would you like to see in the music industry?
I wish artists got paid more for their streams. Artists put in thousands of hours into their music, get 20k streams and end up being paid €1. Artists put too much time into their music to not get something in return. You basically have to be a successful touring DJ to make money from this life.
Is there a goal you’re working towards with your music?
I just want to play music to fans. I don’t have a big goal. I really thrive being on stage. Whenever I can be on stage playing my music, that’s what I want. That’s where I want to be. I feel like I could easily throw out some big festival names and make those stages my goal, but I don’t care which stage it is. Big or small, that’s my passion. That’s my goal.
